...and We're Back!

Check-check, test-test...is this thing on?

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After 180 days offline, Blake's Blog is—once again—cooking with propane!

Sorry about that. Wonderfully consuming projects that keep the lights on and fridge full, a quick summer vacation, a server crash with nefarious tendrils, work trips, concerts, campus visits, covering for a beloved colleague on maternity leave, Homecomings, Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday preparations, Homeland and Downton Abbey midnight marathons with my bride, droll doctor visits, standard errands, year-end altruism, ruminations (and procrastinations) about website re-designs...such things, evidently, trip a man up and slow things down.

Heck, we never even got around to writing (much less publishing) our autumn or winter LEATHLET newsletters. Again, our collective and my personal apologies.

But here we are again, and ringing in a New Year. The Hobbit is released, Django is enthusiastically unchained, the Trip is Guilty of hilarity, Jack has successfully Reached, Les Mis is jubilant, Life of Pi is infinitely inscrutable and only rarely computes, Lincoln was a phenomenal tele-play, the Guardians Rose (but did anyone see or hear them?), Skyfall rocketed, This is 40 is right, the controversial Promised Land is coming and, most excitingly, The Impossible and Zero Dark Thirty and Beautiful Creatures are calling our names. I love the guilty pleasures of pop culture. They (along with dinner rolls slathered in cinnamon butter) are such pleasant reprieves, however small and insignificant. 

One of my 2013 personal aims is to read several works by Charles Dickens. Born 200 years ago this year, Dickens carols my name each and every Christmas, but I'm most eager to read American Notes for General Circulation and see how he walloped America upside its head like Billy Jack. 

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I hope 2012 was your best year yet, and that 2013 will top it.

Momentarily, I'm off to read the transcript of a dear friend's forthcoming book, The Good Will Leader. (More about that next year.)

Then, just a few more holiday excursions, a couple remaining parties, evasive movies, gift returns, automobile repairs, financial closings, and then it'll be time to yank the starter-rope once again and rev-up the engine for another leg of the journey.

 

Hugs to everyone in your life. Enjoy your moments, relish health, and count your blessings. They are typically more bountiful than meets the cursory eye.